The Music In Life
by MadHatter524
Summary: Fifty unrelated one-shots about the Next Generation, each one inspired by a song. Written for cherryredxx's Fifty Days, Fifty Songs Competition. Rated T for language and safety. COMPETITION IS CLOSED, FIC IS ON HIATUS.
1. Somebody That I Used To Know

_**A/N: This collection of one-shots is for cherryredxx's Fifty Days, Fifty Songs Competition. Each one-shot is inspired by a song.**_

_**Song One – Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye**_

_Lily Potter thought that she would be sadder when her boyfriend of four and a half years, Liam Finnigan, said that he wanted to end things between them and just stay friends. In fact, she was surprised to find herself agreeing with him. They had been together since near the end of their fourth year, when Lily had just turned fifteen. Now they were both nineteen, and they hadn't been seeing each other as often. Lily still loved him, of course, but she had discovered that it was more of a sisterly love instead of a romantic love. She wondered whether it had been that way all along and she was just too thick-headed to realize it._

_Now it had been three and a half weeks since their relatively painless break-up. Lily had sent him a letter asking if he'd like to meet up for dinner sometime in Diagon Alley – as friends, of course – but her owl had returned with her unopened letter. This wasn't like Liam at all. She had tried visiting his house the week later, but no one answered the door (although she could have sworn that she heard noises from upstairs). Whatever Liam had said about staying friends, he certainly hadn't meant that if he was going to keep acting this way._

_Sighing, Lily knocked on Liam's door for the second time that week. She thought he could hear his muffled "Damn it!" from upstairs, then some quiet mumbling. After a few long minutes, the door opened._

_"Liam told me to tell you that he's not here," Thomas Goldstein said, absentmindedly running a hand through his messy jet-black hair._

_"So he is here," Lily said._

_"Not according to him, he isn't," Thomas cheerfully remarked._

_Lily rolled her eyes in impatience. None of his was like Liam at all. "Well, would you please tell him that all I want to do is talk to him?"_

_Thomas bit his lip. "He really doesn't want to talk to you," he said sadly. "He told me what happened, and...he doesn't want to see you anymore. At all."_

_Lily almost laughed. Liam was the one who decided that he wanted their relationship to end and "just be friends", and now he was acting like she'd cheated on him and dumped him or something. If anyone deserved to be acting like this, it certainly wasn't him._

_"So I'm supposed to act like the past four and a half years never happened between us and just act like I don't know him at all?" Lily asked, incredulous. "Is that what he wants?"_

_Thomas shrugged. "I'm not psychic. How am I supposed to know?"_

_Lily laughed. It was the first time that she'd laughed in three and a half weeks. Tommy was the opposite of Liam – studious and thoughtful, but still friendly, and funny without even trying. Maybe the whole relationship with Liam had failed because he was too much like her – reckless, talkative, and excitable. Maybe a bit of change was all that she needed._

"Well, I was going to give Liam this offer…" Lily slowly started to say. "But seeing as he's 'not here' at the moment, I guess he'll have to miss out. Would you like to come to dinner in Diagon Alley with me, Thomas?"

Thomas raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Would I be there as a friend or as a date?"

"Whichever you'd prefer," Lily said.

Thomas smiled. "Liam!" he yelled up the stairs. "I know you're not here, but even so, I thought you'd like to know that I'm going to dinner with Lily." Now he and Lily were both holding in laughter. She heard a groan from upstairs.

"And," Thomas said to Lily, "It's Tom, not Thomas. Thomas is what teachers called me."

Lily smiled. "Tom it is, then."

As they Apparated towards Diagon Alley, Lily thought that if Liam wanted to ignore him and pretend that they'd never met, she was fine with him being just somebody that she used to know. With Thomas, on the other hand, things would be different. She could already tell.


	2. Hot N Cold

**A/N: Song Two – Hot N Cold by Katy Perry**

"I HATE JOHNNY MACMILLAN!" Lucy Weasley shouted, slamming the door to the bedroom that she and her older sister Molly shared. She sat on her bed and buried her face in a pillow. Molly came to sit beside her.

"You do know that, as an older sister, I'm required to make life hell for any boyfriend who mistreats you," Molly said. "What is it this time?" She was used to hearing her sister's rants about her boyfriend of five months. Well, sort of five months. They'd started dating five months ago, but for most of the time in between, they'd been having various rows.

"He's not my boyfriend anymore," Lucy muttered into her pillow.

Molly almost laughed, but didn't, because she knew her sister would kick her out. "Do you realize how many times you've said that, Lucy?"

"This time I mean it," Lucy said angrily. "I'm DONE with him changing his mind about everything."

"What was it this time?" Molly asked sympathetically.

"It wasn't exactly a _this time_," Lucy explained, her face still smothered with the pillow. "It's just…everything. I can't take it anymore. He changes his mind like normal people change their underwear." At this, neither of the girls could help but giggle.

"So…have you told him that you're dumping him yet?" Molly asked.

Lucy smiled into the pillow. "Trust me. I've made it very clear how I feel." Molly had no doubt about that. If Lucy wanted someone to know what she thought of them, she didn't waste words. She got right to the often-not-so-kind point.

Lucy stood up. "I'm going downstairs to owl Roxanne." With that, she left, still carrying the pillow.

A week later, Johnny and Lucy were dating again. When Molly heard the news, she just sighed. Someday, Lucy would realize that she hadn't been making the right decisions about him, that she was better off without him. Someday.


	3. Drive By

**A/N: Song 3 – Drive By by Train. This one is very fluffy because I really need fluff in my life.**

James Sirius Potter did not regret much in his life. He didn't regret the time that he had set off some of his large supply of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes fireworks in his Potions class, getting everyone out of Potions but getting himself into a detention. He didn't regret the time that he ate five Puking Pasties at once to get out of a Transfiguration test but ended up in the Hospital Wing for a week. He didn't even regret the time that he "accidentally" put a snake in his sister's bedroom.

Most of the things that he regretted revolved around Alexandra Wood.

He regretted falling for her. He regretted making her fall for him. He regretted those four glorious months of his fifth year. He only regretted those things because they had all led up to what he regretted the most; he regretted leaving her.

He didn't want to. He was still in love with her two years after he had left her waiting in the Three Broomsticks. He'd been scared as hell that she didn't love him anymore, that he'd end up hurting her. And in that fear, he had somehow decided that the best way to not hurt her was to leave her.

Oh, how wrong he had ended up being.

It was now April of their seventh year, and they'd hardly spoken in two years and two months. Every time he saw her in the halls or in Gryffindor Common Room, he wanted to go talk to her. He ended up staring at her from across the room in classes, hoping that she would turn around, see him, and somehow know that he hadn't meant to hurt her.

So when the two were assigned to work together on a two-week Charms assignment, neither of them was very happy. James knew that he should have been happy, but he couldn't bring himself to be the least bit excited.

After Charms class, Alexandra walked up to his desk. "We are going to get a good grade on this, Potter," she said stiffly. "We'll meet at the library at 8:00. You'd better be there, because I'm not doing this whole paper on my own." With that, she quickly walked out of the classroom.

James got to the library at 7:45 and found that Alexandra was already there. He smiled to himself. Of course she was. She was a star Quidditch player and still managed to have time to get Os and Es in all of her classes.

He sat next to her and started reading something. He didn't even know what it was. He ended up reading the same sentence over and over again, trying to make sense of what it said, but his mind was too busy thinking about other things, like how beautiful Alexandra was even when she wasn't trying, and the way she absentmindedly tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear when it got in the way…

Alexandra cleared her throat, interrupting James from his daydreams. "We'd better start getting to work, Potter," she said quietly.

"I – I am working," he stuttered. "Reading, that is."

Alexandra rolled her eyes, and James thought that he saw a smile flash across her face. "That's my Ancient Runes textbook, Potter."

James flushed a deep shade of crimson. "Of course it is," he said, putting the book back on the desk.

Alexandra was saying something about what they should do for the Charms assignment, but James couldn't concentrate. He noticed everything: how the candlelight reflected off of her auburn hair, how her hazel eyes seemed to shine…there was nothing he wanted more at that moment than to kiss her. He knew he shouldn't, but he desperately wanted to, and James wasn't exactly known for thinking things through. He leaned closer…

Alexandra abruptly stood up. "I – I can't, I – " she said, and then turned her back and ran.

James ran after her.

He knew her too well. Whenever she was upset or even just needed to think, she sat on a window seat by a particular fifth floor window that looked out over the Forbidden Forest. Sure enough, when he got there, she was already sitting there, gazing out the window.

"Please go away, Potter," she said softly, not even looking at him.

James ignored her words and sat down next to her. "Lexi –" he started. She stiffened at the nickname that only he had used for her. James gulped and tried again. "Lexi, I – I was a git. I made stupid mistakes. I shouldn't have left you there. I just – I just didn't want to hurt you."

She made a strangled noise that could have been a laugh or a sob. "Yes, and leaving me waiting for you in the Three Broomsticks was a great way of not hurting me." James winced, knowing she was right. She turned towards him, and James was shocked to find tears on her cheeks. The Lexi he knew never cried.

"I didn't come that day because…I was scared as hell you didn't want me to be there, that – that you never really loved me," he admitted.

This time, she really did smile. "And what on Earth could possibly make you think that I don't love you, James?"

This time when James leaned in to kiss her, she didn't pull away.

James Sirius Potter did not regret much in his life, and he most certainly did not regret kissing Lexi Wood in a deserted corridor on a warm night in April.


	4. If Today Was Your Last Day

**A/N: Song 4 – If Today Was Your Last Day by Nickelback**

Fred Weasley II was a true Gryffindor, and that meant that he had fears and that he admitted them.

He feared spiders, like his Uncle Ron. He had never really understood that fear, but it was there all the same.

He feared the things that could hide in the dark. He understood that fearing the dark itself was childish, but fearing the things within was only honest.

His greatest fear, however, was dying. Not so much dying, though, as dying without making some kind of imprint on the earth.

He had been named after a dead man. He was never really sure when he had known that; it was just a fact that had always been there, hovering on the edge of everyone's consciousness. He could tell that some of the time when his dad was looking at him that he wasn't seeing his son. He was seeing his brother, his twin, who had died during the war.

Death was always among them. Reminders of those who had died during the war never left anyone's head for very long. Some of those stories were scary – not because they were frightening, but because they were the only stories of some of those people.

Fred had always wanted to do something big. Something that would make people remember that he wasn't just another member of the Weasley family, that he wasn't just the reincarnation of his father's fallen brother.

And then, one day, the summer before his sixth year, he woke up wondering what would happen if he died that day. He wouldn't have done anything that would leave him remembered by anyone other than his friends and immediate family.

And so he thought. He needed to do something big. And with a grin, he thought of it. It was bigger than anything he'd ever done before, and that was saying something, considering the pranks he'd pulled in his past Hogwarts life.

Let it suffice to say that this huge plan involved a broomstick, an apple tree, a few simple charms, and a jar of mayonnaise, and that it resulted in Fred being grounded for the rest of the month.

It was worth it.


	5. Rich Girl

**A/N: Song 5 – Rich Girl by Hall & Oates**

Roxanne Weasley always knew that her family was rich. Well, her extended family, anyway. Her Uncle Harry always had loads of money for defeating Voldemort and all that stuff, but her father and her other aunts and uncles never accepted his money, even if they were in a rough spot financially. Uncle Harry never minded, though, never seemed to take it as an insult. He would always spoil his nieces and nephews with birthday gifts and Christmas presents, though, and all of the Weasley children knew that if you needed to borrow a little money, he was the one to ask.

Roxanne was one of the ones who most frequently used this money borrowing service. She always paid him back within a week of borrowing the money – she may have been a Slytherin, with all of their bad stereotypes, but she was honest…most of the time.

She never talked about the money she borrowed. Her parents were proud to the extent of extreme stubbornness, and would never have let her borrow money from her uncle, or, as they called it, "taking advantage of his resources". Roxanne didn't see the problem, though. Resources were made to use, especially if the resource was a person who had no problem giving out the money.

She couldn't always live off of her uncle's money, though. That came as more of a slow realization than a sudden reality. She knew that someday she'd make her own way in the world, with her own money, and her own job…the idea of borrowed money disgusted her now. If there was one thing that you could always say about Slytherins, whether they were good or bad, was that they always knew what they wanted and they always knew how to get it.

After her sixteenth birthday, she never asked to borrow money again. She got a summer job as an assistant at Flourish & Blotts. She'd never loved reading as much as some of her cousins, but she loved working there.

And if she hadn't decided to earn her own money and hadn't taken that job at Flourish & Blotts, then a very important event in her life would have never happened, but that's another story for another time.


	6. I Will Remember You

**A/N: Song 6 – I Will Remember You by Sarah McLachlan**

Liam Finnigan never really knew why he'd left Lily Potter like that. He couldn't remember whether he'd been thinking clearly at the time. He didn't think that he had, because a few months after she and his best friend, Tom Goldstien, started dating, he realized something rather frightening.

He still had feelings for her.

He knew that she didn't feel the same way. Even if she once had, his idiotic act of letting her go had ensured that she didn't like him at all anymore. And yet every time that he saw the two at Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade, he couldn't help but glance her way and wonder if she would notice him, maybe spare a smile for somebody who had been such a big part of her past life.

Of course he was happy for Lily and Tom. He knew that they were a perfect match, much better than he and Lily had ever been. A twinge of jealousy now and then didn't mean that he wasn't happy for them.

Except that it was more than a twinge. And it was more often than now and then.

He remembered all of the fantastic times that they'd had together. He remembered the way that the sun would shine off of her red hair, and the way that she'd smile that would make him fall in love all over again. And maybe that was the problem – he was too stuck in the past, a past that was full of happy memories that weren't going to be in the present or future…but he knew that he could never leave those memories behind.

Someday, he would be like Lily – he would get over it and find somebody better. He knew that, and he had known it from the moment that she started dating Tom.

But for now, he would have to deal with the fact that they were apart.

And that everything was his fault.


	7. You And I

**A/N: Song 7 – You and I by Lady Gaga. I'll admit that I stretched the meaning of this one quite a bit, but I didn't have any ideas for what the song was actually about. I did include the "I'm not leaving without you" part, though, so I hope that's enough.**

Almost everyone in the Weasley family could see that Victoire was going to end up marrying Teddy Lupin. They hadn't started dating until the end of Victoire's fifth year, but they had been flirting quite obviously for a while before that. This was also when Teddy had just finished his seventh year. At first, Victoire's parents disapproved of the age gap, but they let the relationship go on, predicting that it would dissolve with the two having to spend so much time apart.

They continued dating, though, much to the frustration of the boys in Victoire's year at school. More than once, boys at Hogwarts would try to persuade her to go to Hogsmeade with them, saying that Teddy wasn't there and that he didn't have to know. She always refused, though.

There was a problem, though. It had always been Teddy's plan to travel after he left Hogwarts, and having a girlfriend in England didn't change that at all. He saw the world, travelled to places such as America and Australia. He and Victoire did send each other letters almost every week, but he rarely came to the Burrow for the holidays. Nobody mentioned his absence, but Victoire felt it.

When Victoire had left for her seventh year, Teddy had come to Platform 9 ¾ to see her off. She'd practically run to him after not seeing him for so long. They'd talked so much that Victoire had almost missed the train. She could hardly stop smiling for the whole trip to Hogwarts. That half-hour conversation had reminded her of why she'd stayed with him even when they were thousands of miles apart.

She couldn't have been more excited for her seventh year graduation. Not only did this mean that she was out of school forever, it meant that she wasn't stuck in one place while her boyfriend travelled all over the world.

When she and her younger sister, Dominique, got off of the Hogwarts Express for the last time, Teddy was there, waiting for her. She was happy, of course, but she was also a bit confused. They had arranged to meet the next day, so why was he here now? Was something wrong?

She didn't even get a chance to ask anything before Teddy came up to her and said, "You're coming with me."

"Coming…where?" she asked.

He smiled. "We're going travelling. Anywhere you want, Vicky." She rolled her eyes at the nickname – when they were little, he had insisted that 'Victoire' was far too French of a name for someone living in England.

She hesitated. "But…my parents…they'll…"

Teddy's grin became wider. "Do you really think that I'd just steal you away from the platform without planning anything?" He winked at Dominique, who was grinning excitedly.

Victoire turned to Dominique. "You knew about this the whole time, didn't you?"

Dominique nodded. "Everyone did! It was _so hard_ not telling you."

"So, are you coming?" Teddy asked. His tone was serious, unlike the joking manner that he almost always used. "I'm not leaving without you."

"Did you ever doubt I would?" she asked him, taking his hand.

They heard a voice from behind them. "Don't tell me I've walked in on _another_ snogging session!" They turned around – it was James, who had just gotten off of the train and was now staring at Teddy and Victoire in almost disbelief.

Teddy and Victoire laughed. "Don't worry, we'll get out of your sight first," Teddy reassured him.

And with that, the couple left the station, off to see the world.


	8. Hands Down

**A/N: Song 8 – Hands Down by Dashboard Confessional**

On the first day of their fourth year at Hogwarts, Scorpius Malfoy had fallen for Rose Weasley. He never really knew what it was about her, but suddenly, he found himself sneaking glances at her, wishing that they were in the same house so that he would be able to spend more time with her.

They were friends, of course – Rose had never taken her father's advice to steer clear of Scorpius seriously, and she had never regretted it. They, Albus, and Roxanne were very close friends. Three Slytherins, one Ravenclaw – not exactly the most common of friendhips, but it worked. Lately, though, Scorpius had spent more and more time wondering what would happen if it was just him and Rose…just him and Rose…

It had taken her quite a while longer to fall for him. She'd never seen him as anything more than a friend for their first four years at Hogwarts. When they were both made Prefects in their fifth year, they were spending much more time together because of patrols and all of their other Prefect duties.

Then sixth year came, and Rose slowly started to see him in a different light. At first, she was scared at this new perception – she didn't want to lose a friend over something that might not even last. But then he asked her if he could buy her a butterbeer on a cold January day in Hogsmeade, and she said yes, and things just went on from there.

He stayed at the Burrow for the Easter holidays that year. He normally spent a lot of time there, anyway, since he and Albus were the best of friends and he and Roxanne were almost like twins in the way they thought. The general reaction at the announcement that he and Rose were dating was rather amusing, though it was a bit embarrassing when Lily exclaimed "Finally!" to the shocked looks of almost everybody else.

The next day, they'd gone to Muggle London for the evening. Scorpius thought that he soft romantic lighting of the restaurant made Rose look even more beautiful.

By the time they had finished eating dinner (which was a bit later than they had planned for), it was pouring rain outside. They laughed as they ran through the rain and the wet streets to find an empty place where they could Apparate to the Burrow (Rose wasn't quite of age yet, but Scorpius was, and he had his Apparition license). They were soaking wet by the time they'd gone two blocks, but neither of them cared.

When they got to the Burrow, they found that the gate was closed. They could have easily Apparated inside, but instead, Scorpius climbed over the fence and opened it to let Rose in.

Scorpius was about to open the door to let them in, but before he could even grab the doorknob, Rose kissed him. He didn't even think – he kissed her back as if this had happened a million times. He brought her into his arms and both of them felt that they were luckier than they ever could have been with all the Felix Felicis in the world.

They didn't even stop when they heard Lily's excited "I told you so!" from upstairs and James's sigh as he put a few silver sickles in her hand.


	9. Wide Awake

**A/N: Song 9 – Wide Awake by Katy Perry. This is another James II/Lexi fic, so if you haven't read Chapter 3, you should probably read that first. This takes place **_**BEFORE**_** Chapter 3. **_**BEFORE**_**.**

Alexandra Wood couldn't believe how blind she'd been. She'd promised herself a long time ago that the most important things in her life were and would always be Quidditch and school studies, in that order. She hadn't calculated anything or anyone else into that equation, especially not a certain Beater from her Quidditch team named James Sirius Potter.

She shouldn't have fallen for him – she knew that she shouldn't have. And yet, with the same certainty, she knew that she couldn't have helped it, even if she'd tried. She couldn't deny that those months that they'd been dating were some of the best that she could remember. She couldn't forget those months, and she certainly couldn't regret them.

She now spent time distancing herself from him as much as was physically possible, considering that not only were they in the same house and the same year, they were also on the same Quidditch team, and as the team captain, she couldn't exactly avoid talking to him forever. She left the Gryffindor Common Room whenever he arrived, opting to go to the library or an empty classroom instead.

She was awake now, not in the dream that the past few months had been. It had been one of those good dreams that turned into a nightmare, making the dreamer bolt upright in bed, wide awake, shivering in a cold sweat. She wouldn't go back to sleep, back to the dream…and yet sometimes, she couldn't help remembering and smiling.

She didn't want to talk to him, or at least that's what she kept telling herself. Maybe part of her did, but she wasn't going to listen to that part. She didn't want to be hurt again. She was awake now. She knew better.


End file.
